My earliest childhood memories are of attending worship services and the wonderful hymns we would sing. When I was very young, I couldn’t read the words, but singing the hymns every Sunday wrote the words on my heart. I didn’t always understand the meaning, but as I grew older, the words became full of meaning.
I love the old hymns that were written by people such as Fanny Crosby and Isaac Watts, who loved Jesus and turned that love into songs. I’ve also found some newer worship songs that have deep meaning. As we come to the season where we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, we cannot forget the cross. A person must believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in order to be saved from eternal death, and the cross was the way Jesus died. Jesus willingly gave His life for our salvation, and we must never ignore what the cross symbolizes.
Jesus did not remain on the cross, as some would like to depict, but His body was taken off the cross and placed in a sealed tomb. Three days later, He arose from the grave and conquered death for all who believe! HALLELUJAH FOR THE CROSS!
HALLELUJAH FOR THE CROSS
Written by Ross King and Todd Wright
Up to the hill of Calvary
My Savior went courageously
And there He bled and died for me,
Hallelujah for the Cross!
And on that day the world was changed
A final perfect Lamb was slain.
Let Earth and Heaven now proclaim,
Hallelujah for the Cross!
Hallelujah for the war He fought
Love has won; death has lost.
Hallelujah for the souls He bought,
Hallelujah for the Cross!
The cross was a victory, not a tragedy. Jesus chose to enter His creation, knowing that He would be mocked, beaten, and crucified. It was a vicious murder but the only way for our Saviour to shed His blood as a sacrifice to take sin away. The Jewish Passover was a foreshadowing of Jesus and was established when the Israelites were captive in Egypt. Moses had approached Pharoah several times to ask him to give Israel their freedom, but Pharoah wouldn’t do it.
“And the LORD said unto Moses; Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt, afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether” (Exodus 11:1).
God was serious about setting His chosen people free. It would have been wise for Pharoah to have complied with God’s “request” when the water was turned to blood or when there was a plague of frogs, but Pharoah wasn’t wise. The final plague would be the death of the firstborn. There was only one way to be protected from this death. On the tenth of the month of Nissan, a lamb was to be chosen by every household, according to God’s directions.
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening” (Exodus 12:5-6).
The lamb was to be slain and his blood put upon the doorposts of the houses of Israel. It wasn’t to be a spur-of-the-moment choice to grab just any lamb and shed its blood. It had to be an unblemished lamb chosen for the purpose of sacrifice.
“For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:23-13).
Only the blood of the lamb would protect those who believed God’s word. That’s true today. Only the blood of Jesus, God’s perfect lamb, will protect us from eternal death. He died on the cross, shed His blood, and by accepting that sacrifice by faith, we are saved.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Passover is always in the Jewish month of Nissan, and this year, it begins at sunset on April 12 and ends at nightfall on April 20. Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, was crucified during Passover, and His shed blood is the final sacrifice for sin. There is no other way for salvation. HALLELUJAH FOR THE CROSS!
What good I’ve done could never save,
My debt too great for deeds to pay.
But God, my Savior, made a way,
Hallelujah for the Cross!
A slave to sin my life was bound,
But all my chains fell to the ground
When Jesus’ blood came flowing down.
Hallelujah for the Cross!
Hallelujah for the war He fought,
Love has won; death has lost.
Hallelujah for the souls He bought,
Hallelujah for the Cross!
Have you done lots and lots of good deeds? That’s nice, but those good works won’t bring salvation. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).
Isaiah spoke the truth. Nobody is righteous enough to stand before God on their own merit. The Law set the standard of righteousness, and all people fall short of God’s perfection. The Law had to be followed exactly in order for a person to meet God’s standard. It’s humanly impossible to do that. Some of the Law required blood to be shed to cover sin.
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).
God does not condone human sacrifice, and that’s why there were animal sacrifices to cover sin. That covering was temporary. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
We need Jesus. Only His shed blood can take sin away. Jesus was fully human because His mother was just a human, and so He was a kinsman to all humanity. His father was God, so His blood was not tainted by the sin that comes from Adam. Jesus was fully human and fully God. John the Baptist recognized Jesus as God’s perfect lamb.
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Passover and was the once for all Sacrifice to take sin away. Faith in Him will bring redemption. There is no other way to live eternally except through the blood of Jesus. HALLELUJAH FOR THE CROSS!
And when I’ve breathed my final breath
I’ll have no need to fear that rest.
This hope will guide me into death.
Hallelujah for the Cross!
Hallelujah for the war He fought,
Love has won; death has lost.
Hallelujah for the souls He bought,
Hallelujah for the Cross!
It will happen. There is a day in the future for all of us when we will take our last breath in this world. The Rapture will happen soon, and Jesus will take His followers to Heaven. Many others will die prior to the Rapture.
Do you know where you will spend eternity? There are only two options; there’s no purgatory to give you a second chance. You will either spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus, or you will spend eternity in the lake of fire that burns forever. The choice must be made before you take your final breath.
If you depend upon your own good works to earn your way to Heaven, then you will not have a pleasant eternity. On the other hand, if you’ve truly repented and asked Jesus to forgive your sin, then you’re one of the souls He bought with His blood, and you have no reason to fear death. His blood, shed on the cross, has bought your salvation. HALLELUJAH FOR THE CROSS!
Jesus died so humanity could live. He is our Kinsman-Redeemer, our Saviour, our Lord, and our God. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is all that, but He loves you and will forgive your sin. While hanging on the cross, He looked at the people on the ground. Some had pounded the nails into his hands and feet, some had cried out for His crucifixion, some had condemned Him, and all had sin.
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots” (Luke 23:34).
Those watching Him die had no thought of their sin. I wonder if any of them repented prior to their own death. If you haven’t repented and asked Him to forgive your sin, do it now. He loves you and shed His blood for you. HALLELUJAH FOR THE CROSS!
God bless you all,
Nathele Graham
twotug@embarqmail.com
Recommended prophecy sites:
www.raptureready.com
www.prophecyupdate.com
www.raptureforums.com
All original scripture is “theopneustos,” God-breathed.
If you would like to be on my mailing list to receive the commentaries, just drop me an email and let me know.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6).